By Gary Martin :
August 18, 2012
: Updated: August 19, 2012 1:16am

Rep. Francisco "Quico" Canseco claimed that he was singled out - twice this month - for security scans at San Antonio International Airport by "overzealous" federal screeners who frisked him. This video is from 4/16/12.

Rep. Francisco "Quico" Canseco claimed that he was singled out for security scans at San Antonio International Airport by "overzealous" federal screeners who frisked him. This video was from 4/22/12.

TSA Congressman 4-22-12 (3)

Photo By COURTESY OF SAN ANTONIO AIRPORT

In a video frame grab taken from security camera footage, U.S. Rep. Francisco "Quico" Canseco is seen talking to security officials at the San Antonio International Airport TSA checkpoint during an April 22, 2012 trip Cancesco took through the airport in which he was singled out for a secondary search of his carry-on items and a pat-down of his body. After two security-line skirmishes involving Transportation Security Administration pat downs, officers labeled U.S. Rep. Quico Canseco was labeled an Òunruly passengerÓÑ a label he rejects. The Republican congressman from the 23rd district says the federal agency has been given too much power. TSA officials maintain he was subjected to the same security standards as any other passenger.

Photo By COURTESY OF SAN ANTONIO AIRPORT

U.S. Rep. Francisco Canseco (left) is subjected to a security check at the San Antonio International Airport.

Photo By COURTESY OF SAN ANTONIO AIRPORT

In a video frame grab taken from security camera footage, U.S. Rep. Francisco "Quico" Canseco is seen talking to security officials at the San Antonio International Airport TSA checkpoint during an April 22, 2012 trip Cancesco took through the airport in which he was singled out for a secondary search of his carry-on items and a pat-down of his body. After two security-line skirmishes involving Transportation Security Administration pat downs, officers labeled U.S. Rep. Quico Canseco was labeled an Òunruly passengerÓÑ a label he rejects. The Republican congressman from the 23rd district says the federal agency has been given too much power. TSA officials maintain he was subjected to the same security standards as any other passenger.

After two security-line skirmishes at San Antonio International Airport, including one Canseco called “an assault” and another in which San Antonio police labeled the irate congressman an “unruly passenger,” the TSA says it has reached an “amicable resolution” with Canseco.

The Republican congressman from the 23rd district is not so mollified.

Canseco's contention that his rights were violated is in line with a national debate about the infringement on civil liberties by the government following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

“I think it's very important to secure our air traffic,” he said. “I think we still face a lot of dangers, but we are going about it the wrong way.”

Inevitably linked is the political calculus of taking on the government bureaucracy and the TSA during a heated election year.

Canseco said his distress over the screening incidents was not prompted by his re-election campaign or his philosophical stance that TSA agents should not have the authority of law enforcement.

“They really are not law enforcement. They are nothing more than screeners,” he said.

On April 16, Canseco was selected for additional screening, and TSA Agent Harvey Drosen tried to do a pat down.

When his hands reached Canseco's upper thighs, the congressman quickly and angrily pushed them away, sparking a confrontation in which Canseco and TSA supervisors talked for more than 10 minutes before Canseco allowed agents to complete the screening.

Then, on April 22, Canseco was (randomly, TSA says) selected for additional screening of his carry-on items. Again, Canseco became upset, and a San Antonio police officer was summoned.

Again, after a lengthy discussion, Canseco reluctantly consented to the search of his belongings.

After Freedom of Information Act requests, the Police Department released its report on the second incident, as well as surveillance video of both incidents, to the San Antonio Express-News.

In that report, Police Cpl. Robert de la Garza classified the event as a “disturbance” involving an “unruly airport passenger.”

“Francisco Canseco was to do additial(sic) screening and refused and became irate with screeners due to an incident that occurred last week,” the report states.

The report identifies Canseco as a congressman, and added that he “became irritated and stated he was not going to be touched.”

Canseco disagreed with how the event was characterized by SAPD.

“I don't think I was unruly,” he said in an interview. “That is a real stretch of what happened. ... You have to look at the videotapes in order to really judge if I was unruly or not,” Canseco said.

Asked if he still thought he had been assaulted in the first TSA encounter, Canseco said: “I was.”

No charges were filed.

After repeated phone calls and emails seeking comment about the incident, a Dallas TSA spokesman, Luis Casanova, released an email statement saying that “this incident has been amicably resolved between TSA and Congressman Canseco.”

Casanova refused to say whether any agents were disciplined or policies changed after the events involving Canseco. He also declined to make the agents involved available for interview.

Canseco said TSA contacted his staff after the initial incidents.

He said he never felt as though he was being profiled by TSA, but he questioned why he was repeatedly selected at random for screenings.

“It was highly suspicious as to whether they were trying to make a point,” he said.

In the wake of the screening flap, questions remain. Did the tea party-supported Canseco use the initial search to pick a fight with a federal agency he says has been given too much power? Did TSA deliberately target Canseco a second time in retaliation for his protests in the first incident? Did the pat down and subsequent search of Canseco's belongings amount to anything more than what hundreds of passengers endure daily in the name of air safety?

And perhaps most urgently, how will the whole fracas play in one of the country's hottest House races — Canseco's bitter battle against Democratic state Rep. Pete Gallego?

Gallego, D-Alpine, Canseco's general election opponent, said Canseco's tangle with TSA is an attempt to shift the focus away from Canseco's voting record on the economy and issues important to constituents in the 23rd Congressional District.

“He is not above the law,” said Gallego, a former prosecutor. “Mr. Canseco is an extremist and his goal is calculated to fan the flames on the issues that are not on the forefront of the American conscience.

“It is really an attempt to distract voters from his failure as a congressman,” Gallego said.

Canseco said he never sought special privileges from TSA as a congressman.

“I never pulled that. I never do that, it's not in my character,” he said.

Canseco dismissed Gallego's comments as an attempt to “demonize” him, coming from a desperate challenger.

“I'm doing a very fine job in Washington. I am very proud of my record,” Canseco said.

An attack on an agency like the TSA could be a good political gamble in a year where voters are angry with the federal government.

“A lot of politics is picking the right enemies. It's like the IRS. I don't think the TSA, in many situations, is going to come off looking like the good guy,” Kondik said.

Nevertheless, a national survey showed 54 percent of Americans think TSA is doing an excellent or good job, according to an Aug. 8 Gallup Poll.

Libertarian and tea-party-supported politicians have railed against the TSA searches.

New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party presidential candidate, questioned the morals of the TSA in an exclusive interview with the conservative the Daily Caller website this year after refusing to be screened.

And Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., filed a bill calling for restrictions of TSA after he refused to be patted down at the Nashville airport and was blocked from boarding his flight. Screeners said they had seen “an anomaly” in an X-ray screening.

Before his encounters, Canseco co-sponsored the Stop TSA's Reach in Policy (STRIP) Act filed by Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., which would prohibit TSA employees from wearing uniforms or badges.

“The least we can do is end this impersonation, which is an insult to real cops,” Blackburn said.